Gov. Scott Walker and GOP legislators are working on an incentive package that would give Kimberly-Clark “Foxconn terms” to keep 600 jobs the paper manufacturer now plans to eliminate in Neenah.
State Sen. Roger Roth said the bill he’s working on with Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, would target jobs paying between $30,000 and $100,000. He was not sure how many of the 600 jobs slated for elimination would be impacted. But he estimated the cost to the state in the range of $3 million to $10 million.
Roth, R-Appleton, laid out parameters of the bill he’s working on after Walker called for legislation that would increase state credits in an effort to keep open two company plants in Neenah.
Walker in a statement said he would work with lawmakers to increase the tax credits available for job retention to 17 percent from the current 7 percent. That incentive would match what Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn is receiving as part of a package that helped lure the company to Racine County.
Still, Dems slammed the guv’s call as reactionary, saying a tweet from him first pushing to help the company came off as reactionary and underscored that his administration had failed to adequately work with the company before last month’s announcement the plants would close as part of a global restructuring.
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